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Dutch Formosa

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File:1640 Map of Formosa-Taiwan by Dutch 荷蘭人所繪福爾摩沙-臺灣.jpg

I found this interesting.  The Dutch were definitely a force in the east indies but did you know they had a settlement in Taiwan!  For 38 years ( 1624-1662) the colonial Dutch government had a settlement on the island, toward the south, as a pit stop to trade with China and Japan; almost all of the Dutch there were soldiers at a defensive fort. 

At that time the island was inhabited by aborigines and Chinese immigrants, its main resource was deer.  Basically after a while the native people were sick of Hollands tyrannical colonization, and after several uprisings they took back their island. 

Some of the interesting contributions of Dutch rule are the standards that were set for Taiwan's international trade ability as well as a liberal view of immigration that allowed many Chinese to come to the island, creating an ethnically Chinese majority, and opening up communication between the Chinese and Taiwanese who were culturally more Polynesian.      

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